#6 Final Reflection on Learning

I have learnt a lot of different things in this module. It is very hard to point on exactly what I have learnt but I will try to do it in this blogpost.

During this module we worked in different group projects almost every class. This has shown me that people are very different and different cultural background matters when it comes to working together in a group project. 

To show what I mean I'll give a concrete example:

In our last project work, the proposal, we worked very good as a group. All of us had very different background. One thing that I saw in this project was that deciding one thing didn't mean the same for everyone. For example during the project we planned to have a deadline with some part of the project till Sunday, when we then met on Sunday these parts were not finished. I know that everyone have other modules and other things to focus on, but it was a suprise to me that a deadline is not as strict as I'm used to. This was probably a cultural difference which I think is very important to remember in the future.

Overall this wasn't an issue, just something I thought about. From this I learnt that if I want to have a deadline on Sunday and it really has to be on Sunday - then I need to be very clear about it.

There are several small things like this that I have learnt in this module, all these small things together gives me a greater understanding of how communication works in general!

Thanks Brad for a very interesting module!

Patrik

#5 Reflection on Oral presentation

I am quite satisfied with the presentation I did. But unfortunately I didn't have time to prepare it as much as I wanted to. Even though I managed to deliver what I wanted. I think I could do that because I'm quite comfortable and calm when I present something.

The slides I had in my presentation were good and were connected with what I had to say. The slides were easy to follow and not too much text to read for the audience and some pictures that made the slides more interesting. These pictures were not just picture to make it more interesting; I implemented all pictures with a purpose and used them in my presentation.

My oral part of the presentation was good, I didn't stumble and I spoke clearly. Compared to the previous presentation I used some slightly different tones which was a small improvement. I think I had eye contact with all people that listened to the presentation.

Some bad things in my presentation were that I should be more enthusiastic and show more engagement. I need to show that I really believe in what I'm talking about. I also need to develop my body language and use more different tones, thus I will make it more interesting to listen to. I can also improve and have more eye contact with the audience, for example stop at every person for a short while instead of looking around all the time.

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Since I'm from Sweden in Europe, I've seen some cultural differences here in Singapore, especially when it comes to food.

How to act and behave when you eat is very different. For example in Sweden we always eat with knife and fork but here in Singapore the restaurants only offer spoon and fork, and of course chop sticks. In some countries here in Southeast Asia they eat with their hands, which we only do with pizza and burgers in Sweden. For example I was in Philippines and they gave me a plastic glove to eat with. At first I thought they gave it to me since I'm not local, but then I saw that everyone used it. It was actually quite convenient for some types of food.

Another situation that seems to occur quite often here in Singapore is that people want to share the food. I have eaten several times with Asian people, and they often offer me to taste their food. In Sweden we buy our own food and most of the times we eat our own food without offering it to the friends. I think we do like that because we are a bit selfish and we want to keep the best things by our self.

I suppose that this is cultural a difference. Many dishes here are meant to be shared - for example you and some friends buy 5-10 small dishes and eats from all of them. I think this kind of "sharing" is then transmitted to all types of meal.

Maybe we should share more of our food to each other in Sweden?

Cover Letter *Revised*

Hi all,
Here is my cover letter. The internship I will apply to is the following:
http://www.finansjobben.se/f/sites/default/files/Investment_Banking_Summer_Analyst_Program.pdf

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*Revised 7 October*

9 September 2012

Patrik Jeppsson

+65-98119253

pjeppson@kth.se

Nomura Investment Banking Division

Dear Human Resources Manager,

My purpose of writing to you is to apply for the Investment Banking Summer Analyst Program. I am attaching my resume and grades for your review. Both my working experience and education are relevant for this job and I belive that I can contribute with skills like efficiency, winning mentality and planning.

During my studies at KTH I have had a couple of part-time jobs and jobs during the summers. This summer I worked at SEB as Mortgage loan officer. I received questions and applications through phonecalls, online and by letters. I learned how to handle stress and how to work efficiently. The job included both talking to customers and administrative tasks; so planning the day and working efficient was very important. This is the first time I worked with a sales quota for a period, I reached the targets and I managed to be one of the top 5 sellers out of a team of 30 people during the summer. Another important part of the job was to show responsibility for SEB’s values and goals because I was one of the people that communicated directly to the customers.

Besides the studies and job at SEB I am a board memeber in my floorball club. The tasks that the board should do is divided by the members of the board. My responsibility has been to schedule the training seasons. That requires a lot of planning and administrative work, and I try to make the schedule optimal for all floorball teams in the club.

With my experience and willingness to develop and learn new skills I belive I would do a great job at Nomura.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and I am really looking forward to hearing from you. You can reach me at +65-9811 9253 or email me at pjeppson@kth.se.

Yours faithfully,

Patrik Jeppsson

#2 Interpersonal Conflict

I and some friends were away for a week vacation in Greece. We were 8 friends that travelled; all of us were good friends with each other. We met at high school where we studied in the same class. The main reason of the trip was clear to everyone; swimming in the ocean, sunbathing and party all night long.

What happened was that we always divided our self into smaller groups of two to three peoples. Same thing happened when we went either to the beach or the bars. But there is no problem to divide into smaller groups; I guess it is quite normal to divide into smaller groups when you are eight persons. In the beginning of the week everyone asked each other if they wanted to follow to a certain activity, but after some days people stopped asking and just assumed that “the others” didn’t want to follow.

I think that the motivation why the group was divided happened because it’s much easier to do something if you are two or three persons than if you are eight. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t ask the other friends if they want to follow. I think this happens quite often in normal situations too, for example if someone says “no” a couple of times when you’re planning an activity, many people just assume that they will never want to do it again.

My question now is: What can a larger group (like eight persons) do to avoid dividing into smaller groups and keep trying to get other peoples to join a certain activity?

Patrik

Effective communication

Effective communication is very important; almost everything contains some kind of communication. For me it is important mostly because I want to meet and communicate with new and current friends and communicate in an efficient way so I will get the jobs that I want.

In the future I want to become a manager at a company. To reach my target I need to develop my communication skills; like how to communicate with employees, what to communicate, when to communicate things. All people are different and I need to learn various kind of communication to use it in different situations.

During the course I hope that I will learn how to communicate in a more efficient way. Being a successful manager requires certain skills, for example; leadership, commitment and communication skills. I think that communication skills are one of the most important attribute, because if you can’t communicate in the right way, then no one will listen to you. There are many examples of people that tried to communicate one thing but failed to do it.

This is Carl Henrik Svanberg, he is from Sweden and is Chairman of the Board at British Petroleum. This quote is after the accident in Mexican Golf where millions barrels of oil was spilled in the ocean.

For me, I mostly need to develop my oral communication skills. I need to be more confident in what to say, how to say it and especially not hesitate when I am saying something. The course offers a wide range of different tasks that include different types of oral communication and when the course is finished in December I hope that my skills have developed a lot in this area!